South Asia Times News Bulletin

A huge explosion ripped through a US power plant Sunday being built in Connecticut amid reports up to 50 people may have died, emergency officials said, as a rescue operation swung into place.
The blast at the gas-fired plant in Middletown, home to 40,000 people on the Connecticut River, sent flames and black smoke billowing into the sky and shook houses several miles (kilometers) away, witnesses said.

As helicopters, ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene and a massive search and rescue operation was launched, officials were reluctant to say how many might have died, but a large number of fatalities was feared.

"The reports vary from a few, several to possibly as many as 50 dead," told Brian Albert from the Middlesex hospital, which was treating several of those injured in the blast at the Kleen Enery plant.

"They are in the process of search and rescue," Albert said, adding that the Middlesex was treating six patients and a seventh had been transferred to the nearby Hartford hospital, which confirmed it was also handling injured.

CNN reported at least two fatalities but officials would not immediately confirm the number of deaths or injured at the plant in the northeastern US state of Connecticut.

One witness told the local Hartford Courant newspaper: "There are bodies everywhere." Other witnesses suggested many victims could still lie buried in the rubble.